


One Good Thing

by Gallowmere



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Gen, Long Runner, Slow Burn, Vincrecia, Vinlu, Whump, alternate title: two times Vincent thought Lucrecia was there for him, and one time she really was, borrows elements from Dirge & Compilation & Remake
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 04:54:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 15,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28504809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gallowmere/pseuds/Gallowmere
Summary: When Vincent first meets Lucrecia, he gets the uncanny feeling they've met before. He soon falls head over heels for her, but a number of obstacles stand in their way - from ShinRa & Hojo to Lucrecia's own doubts and fears. But a second struggle is taking place: between the pre-destined course of events and the hopes of those in the shadows trying to change things.
Relationships: Hojo & Vincent Valentine, Lucrecia Crescent/Vincent Valentine
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7





	1. The First Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Happy New Year! (A day late, whoops) This is going to be a long fic, possibly split into two halves. Expect a lot of angst and Vincrecia, and some overlap with the Remake storyline. I had started this once under the same title and didn’t like the direction, so I decided to write the whole outline first and start over. 
> 
> Please R&R, comments are appreciated!

It was the strangest feeling Vincent had ever had – the minute he shook the young woman’s hand, he was convinced they had met before. And stranger still, she didn’t look intimidated or annoyed by his staring, despite his brown-red eyes often unsettling people he met. She was looking back at him with a surprised look that seemed to say, ‘How funny, I never expected to see you here’. 

Vincent cleared his throat. “How do you do? Vincent Valentine, ma’am. I’ve been assigned to your – to everyone’s – protection.”

She surprised him by giggling and squeezing his hand tighter before letting go and brushing back her brown bangs from her eyes. “Nice to meet you, Mr Valentine,” she said, and he flushed when he realised it was his formality that was entertaining her. “I’m Dr Lucrecia Crescent. I look forward to working with you.”

Professor Gast cleared his throat and the two of them snapped back to attention, Vincent folding his arms behind his back and lowering his gaze. He smiled, taking off his lab coat and retrieving his coat from the back of the chair. 

“Well, now we’ve said our hellos, how about we take a walk?” Gast said. The two younger employees looked at him, surprised, and the scientist shrugged. “Everyone else will be clearing out the manor for some time and I’d like to take a look around the town before we get started. Would you accompany us, Vincent?”

“Of course, Professor.”

But Gast just waved him off. “You can call me Faremis if you’re comfortable. It’s only fair. Is that all right with you?” He directed that at Lucrecia, who was still watching Vincent with curious eyes. 

“Of course,” she said, smiling. She went to retrieve her coat but Vincent was faster, retrieving it for her and shyly helping her put it on. Lucrecia’s amusement only seemed to increase, however, and Vincent coughed awkwardly, letting the two of them head out the door first. 

Vincent assumed he was walking with them in the capacity of a bodyguard, but as they headed down the grand staircase and to the doors, the two of them would frequently turn and involve him in their conversation. It was...pleasant, actually, and unlike what he’d experienced before when working for General Administrative at Shin-Ra. 

They headed out into the town and Vincent walked to the side of the scientists, mostly to make sure he could protect them from danger if need be. Likely he was overdoing it, but old habits died hard, even in a small town like this. 

Lucrecia seemed to sense his thoughts and turned to ask, “Have you ever worked in a town like this, Mr Valentine?”

“Actually...no,” he said, glancing over at her. “Before this I was working in Midgar for a time.”

Her eyes lit up. “That’s where they’ve been building all the new Reactors! What’s it like there? Are the people excited?”

“I’m afraid I didn’t see much of it, Dr Crescent. They have begun building a massive plate for the new city, though.”

“Incredible...I’d love to see it, someday.”

“Perhaps we can all take a trip once this project wraps up,” Professor Gast said, encouraging the two of them to take another path. “For now, though, I expect we’ll be getting attached to Nibelheim and the mountains for a good long time. I hope you don’t mind the cold, Vincent, since we’ll be taking a good number of excursions up there.”

“I don’t mind the cold,” Vincent said. “I’d be happy to explore the mountains, actually, Professor.”

Gast gave him a look at the formal address but didn’t correct him, instead pointing out a little building at the end of the street. “There. I wanted to stop and eat here. Are you two up for that?”

“Sounds good to me,” Lucrecia said, looking pleased at the idea of getting out of the cold autumn air. Vincent nodded, too, still surprised that Gast was bothering to ask his opinion. Maybe this assignment in a small town would turn out better than he’d been expecting it to…

The Turk held the door open for the two scientists and they slipped inside a small pub, the owners warmly greeting them. A fireplace was burning on one side, an upright piano standing near the wall on the other and little tables filling the rest of the space not taken up by the bar. 

Lucrecia made a beeline for the table next to the fireplace, gesturing the two of them to follow. “Come on! I’m hungry!” 

Gast sat down, looking perplexed as Vincent awkwardly stayed standing. “Is something wrong?”

“I don’t want to intrude,” Vincent said, still standing with his arms folded behind his back. “Perhaps I should patrol the perimeter?”

Lucrecia hid a giggle behind her hand as Gast raised an eyebrow. “We’re in a pub, Vincent. Sit and eat with us, why don’t you? We can get to the work later.”

Vincent shifted his weight, taking the hint when Lucrecia nudged an empty chair towards him and sinking down into it. He sat straight, not able to relax into it as he checked around the pub. A few other people were in the little building, looking curiously over at the group but going back to their conversations soon after. 

It was like that through the group ordering their meals – Gast again pushing Vincent to loosen up and order something to eat instead of just a glass of water while Lucrecia found the whole thing pretty funny – that that changed. More people began to file into the pub and the place was soon filled with bright conversation and between that and the warmth from the fireplace, Vincent really did start to loosen up a little. 

He found himself joining in with the conversation little by little, and since Lucrecia and Gast were making no attempt just to discuss work, he felt able to ask the two of them what they liked to do outside of work. 

Gast thought before saying, “You know, I don’t really know. I’ve just been focusing on Shin-Ra and this assignment for so long, I just haven’t had time.”

“What about when you did have the time?” Lucrecia asked. 

“I did used to like following the chocobo races,” he said, chuckling and taking a drink of his tea. “What about you, Lucrecia?”

She looked bashful. “To be honest with you, I’ve been the same for a long time. I was a bit annoyed at the Nibelheim assignment at first because I thought it might be too quiet for me.” She noticed Vincent’s surprised look and smiled at him. “What about you, Mr Valentine?”

“Oh. Well…” Vincent fidgeted, surprised to be in a situation where a reserved man like him actually had more interests than the accomplished scientists next to him. “Reading, mostly. Combat training. I used to play an instrument when I was younger, but…”

Lucrecia leant forward, sparkling eyes staring deep into his. “Really? Which one?”

“The – the piano,” he stammered, unable to do anything but answer honestly when she looked at him like that. 

The pub went suddenly quiet. 

Vincent looked up, finding everyone was none-too-subtly looking their direction. He barely had time to react before the owner had come up to him and said, “What was that? You can play piano?”

It was then Vincent remembered the piano in the corner, a sinking feeling in his stomach when he replied, “Yes…?”

“Play for us? We haven’t had a decent player in here in a long time,” he said, looking hopefully down at the Turk. 

“I would like to, but I’m on duty-”

He didn’t get much further than that before Lucrecia jumped out of her seat and pulled him up by the arm. “Oh come on, Mr Valentine! The Professor and I can protect ourselves for five minutes.”

Vincent looked at Gast for help, but the Professor just shrugged and smiled encouragingly. He turned back to Lucrecia, working his arm free of her grip and saying, shyly, “All right. But you’re going to have to sing.”

Her face fell. “That wasn’t part of the deal, Mr Valentine.”

He nerved himself to hold her gaze as he said, “I’m charged with your protection, ma’am. You want me to play, I need you somewhere I can see you.” He rubbed the back of his neck, trying not to blush when he added, “This works out, doesn’t it?”

That got a lot harder when she kept staring at him and he was certain she could feel the heat rising to his face. If she noticed how flustered her attention alone was making him, though, she didn’t let on. Instead she just shyly bit her lip, nodded, and grabbed his wrist again, pulling him through the cheers of encouragement at the bar to the piano. 

He swept his coat under him and sat at the piano stool, lifting the lid and brushing away the dust from the keys. The selection of sheet music was limited, but Vincent spotted an old song that most people would know: an old air about the joys of travelling the Planet. 

He picked it out, holding out the sheet to Lucrecia. “Do you know this one?”

She reached out to take it, her hand brushing his and giving him that strange feeling of familiarity once again. Their eyes met, their hands lingered with Lucrecia not pulling away. 

“It’s been a while since I’ve done this,” Vincent said. “I might be a bit rusty.”

She smiled, taking the music from him. He let his hands drop into his lap, their gazes holding. “I haven’t done this at all,” she replied. “Maybe we can figure it out together?”

He nodded, his eyes still on her when he raised his hands to the piano. The patrons of the bar were cheering the two of them on, impatient for the music to start, but Vincent could barely hear them. On one hand, he couldn’t help but wonder if he was imaging this odd feeling, but on the other hand... 

He’d been superstitious for a long time, almost religious in some ways, but this was the strangest feeling of all. More than just Lucrecia, something about being in his room, here and now...it gave him an odd sense of déjà vu, like he’d been here and done all of this before. 

And as he lifted his hands and began to play, Vincent silently prayed that it meant that things were about to change for the better.


	2. The First Night

Please R&R, comments are appreciated!

Chapter 2: The First Night

Vincent’s piano playing was rough around the edges, but he was surprised by how fast it came back to him. Lucrecia was reluctant to sing at first, but knowing the song seemed to help and the rowdy enthusiasm of the rest of the pub joining in helped even more. The rest of the evening flew by and it surprised both Vincent and Lucrecia when someone from the manor appeared in the pub, whispering something in Gast’s ear. 

The Professor rose and approached them at the piano in a break between numbers, leaning down to tell them, “Sounds like they’ve cleaned out the cobwebs at the manor and rooms are ready. If you two want to stay here a bit longer…?”

Vincent looked over at Lucrecia. “If you’re tired, Dr Crescent, I’m happy to escort the two of you back.”

Lucrecia brushed her bangs out of her eyes, her face a little flushed from singing so long. “OK,” she said, clutching the sheet music to her chest before handing it back. “Maybe we can do it again sometime?”

Vincent felt a smile tugging at his lips but was interrupted from responding by the cheers of the patrons nearby. 

“Well,” Gast said as the two of them adjusted their coats and tidied up the piano, “At least they don’t mind Shin-Ra staff here.”

Lucrecia and Vincent murmured their agreement, bidding goodbye to the patrons and heading back out onto the cold night. 

It had been a nice night and Vincent was definitely ready to turn in, but now that it was dark Vincent went back onto high alert, checking around the streets to any potential dangers to the scientists. Lucrecia and Gast didn’t tease him about it this time, happy to just talk quietly as they walked through the streets. Soon they had reached the manor gates, a gentle light streaming across the grounds from within. 

Vincent wanted to escort the two of them indoors, but Lucrecia lingered, looking up at the windows with wistful eyes. “It’s bigger than I was expecting,” she said, turning to Gast. “Don’t you think?”

“Apparently it’s a very old building,” Gast said, taking off his glasses and dusting them. “It used to belong to an old wealthy family, apparently, but they haven’t lived in the town for a long time and the manor fell into disrepair.”

“That’s a shame,” Lucrecia said. Then she turned and flashed the two of them a luminous smile. “Well, we can put it to better use together, can’t we?”

Gast chuckled, leaning over to Vincent and saying softly, “Watch this one; she’s non-stop. You won’t have much trouble keeping up with an older sort like me, though.”

“Professor, you’re not even 40 yet!”

He waved her off, the two of them finally heading into the manor. 

Vincent made to follow when suddenly he felt a cold chill down the back of his spine. Instinctively he turned around, scanning the yard and spotting nothing and no one….until he suddenly met a pair of green eyes peeking around the corner. He peered around, just getting a glimpse of a young woman with brown hair in a deep red dress before she turned on heel and hurried away.

“Vincent?” Gast called. “Everything all right?”

Vincent lingered for a second longer, not sure why he felt unnerved but making a mental note to look out for the woman in future. “Fine,” he said, turning and following the others inside. He followed the two scientists to the main hall where room assignments were being handled, but his mind was elsewhere. 

There had been something different about the green eyes of that woman and the longer he thought on it, the more he felt something in her expression had been...frightened. And the harder he tried to shake it off, the more it unnerved him. 

Lucrecia didn’t question his sudden reticence to speak as he escorted the two of them to their rooms for the night, no doubt having other, more important things on her mind. Vincent tried not to think on his sudden bad feeling as he arranged his few possessions in his own room and laid out his clothes for tomorrow, his first official day on the job. 

Then he laid himself down to sleep, grateful that the long day of settling in and the good meal at the pub made him too drowsy for his overactive mind to overpower. His eyes started to drop shut and he wondered distantly what tomorrow would bring…

Canons, all of them moving slowly with the grind of metal as they clicked into place. 

Shin-Ra troops, lines upon lines of them, forming up and heading out in convoys, on boats, bearing down on little towns and unsuspecting horizons up ahead. 

People drawing up forts, guns in hand, all of them totally unaware of the thunder Shin-Ra was about to reign down upon them-

People shot, red wounds exploding outwards as they fell into the dirt. 

A mountain came into view, beautifully carved into different faces with their arms outstretched. Da-Chao, shining in the morning light-

Then obscured by smoke and fire rising into the sky – sparks and ash drifted past, then troopers walked past.

Troopers wearing the Shin-Ra logo. 

Vincent sat bolt upright, breathing hard. It took him a second of looking around his dark room to remember where he was – ShinRa manor, freshly moved in – and several minutes longer than that to slow his breathing to a normal level. 

What the hell was that? He’d never had a dream that had felt so realistic before, and what he’d seen… hadn’t that been Wutai?

And what the hell was with the troops, the weapons, the canons? Shin-Ra was a manufacturer of small weapons, not a mobilised army marching off to war…

Vincent ran his hands through his hair, shocked to find his hand came away damp from his clammy skin. The nightmare was bad enough he’d been sweating…

He collapsed back against the sheets, trying to calm his breathing. 

He’d been here all of a day and already the place was getting into his head. He needed to calm down and get a hold of himself…

But as he settled back down to sleep, he couldn’t help but wonder at how three strange things had happened within the course of a single day. 

Superstitious or not, Vincent wasn’t in the habit of ignoring his instincts, and right now his instincts were telling him to keep a close eye on everything that was going on at Shin-Ra – both inside the manor, and out. 

And to kept Lucrecia (and Gast) safe while he did so.


	3. The First Weapon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Please R&R, comments are appreciated!

Vincent woke early the next morning, having slept uneasily the night before. He was the first to the labs, preparing a cup of coffee for all three of them and cleaning his guns and equipment before the scientists could arrive. It was early enough that the other staff weren’t yet in and out of the room, so he didn’t have to make small talk with anyone. 

Until Lucrecia walked in. 

He looked up, watching her yawn and finish winding a ribbon around that long, beautiful hair. She spotted him and the coffee and her sleepy eyes lit up. 

“That smells good,” Lucrecia gushed, eagerly grabbing the cup of coffee off the counter and warming her hands with it. “Are you an early bird, Mr Valentine?”

He tried to brush his bangs out of his eyes, hoping his restlessness night wasn’t obvious on his face. “I suppose so, Dr Crescent. Though I’ve always preferred the night-time, if I’m honest.”

She looked up from the sugar she was dumping into her coffee. “Really? Why?”

He shrugged. “I...don’t know, actually. I suppose everything looks different at night. When you get used to it, it kind of feels like looking at another world. And things are quieter, more peaceful…” He trailed off, realising he’d been babbling. “I apologise, I’m not making any sense.”

She blinked the sleep from her eyes, lowered her coffee with wide eyes. “I guess things look different when you’re a big bad Turk. I’d never have thought to take a walk at night.” 

“I could show you sometime,” Vincent offered before he’d stopped to think about it. She stared at him, eyes even wider now and Vincent could feel himself going red. Damn, what was the matter with him? “I mean, if you’d like. You don’t need to feel obligated-”

“I’d love to,” she cut in, smiling. “And maybe I could find you something fun to do in return.”

His flush was only getting worse as his thoughts went exactly where he didn’t want them to go. “Something fun?” he echoed, trying hard to sound natural and probably failing. 

“Mm!” She grinned mischievously and raised her coffee to her lips, looking up at him from under her lashes. “Don’t take it personally, but I get the feeling you could use some more fun, Mr Bodyguard.”

“Oh. Well…” He stammered, not sure what to say. As much as he liked his few pursuits – music, reading, shooting practice – it was true he hadn’t had much of a social life until now. His youth hadn’t exactly been a settled one, and ever since then he’d just been working to have enough to live on… “I look forward to it,” he said finally, sure when she raised an eyebrow that she’d noticed his embarrassment. He ducked his head and rubbed the back of his neck, thankful when Professor Gast walked in. 

“Good morning, Professor,” Lucrecia greeted. “Vincent made us both coffee!”

“Great thinking,” he said, picking up his mug. “Can’t function without it.” He dropped himself unceremoniously into his seat and took a deep drink and the other two followed his lead and joined him at the kitchen table. 

“Can I ask what the itinerary is for today?” Vincent asked. 

“You can. But I won’t be functional enough to answer until the caffeine kicks in,” he mumbled, staring off into the distance. Lucrecia stage-whispered ‘definitely not a morning person’ behind her hand to him and Vincent restrained a laugh. Gast wasn’t paying attention, though. He looked out the window with distant eyes, seemingly miles away. Vincent had resigned himself to letting the man go through his morning routine uninterrupted when suddenly Gast reached into his pocket and pulled out a flyer, pushing it across the table to Vincent. 

“What’s that?” Lucrecia asked, turning it around so they could see better.

“Don’t know,” Gast said. “Was told to give it to the Turks and thought I should before I forget…”

But Vincent had ceased to hear him. The title of the leaflet came into view and he felt his blood run cold:

SHIN-RA WEAPONS TRIALS OPEN TO TURKS! TEST OUT INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY – LIMITED PLACES AVAILABLE

Weapons testing. Just like in his dream. 

Lucrecia looked over at him, curious, when he pulled the leaflet closer to read the fine print. Nothing stood out, just a lot of boilerplate about risks incurred and that the weapons had been made by the science department, so they expected good reports on the usefulness of them. He stared at it, trying to find any clue similar to what he’d seen in his dream. There was nothing – nothing about armed forces or canons or invading other countries (and why would there be? It was just a flyer, after all) but Vincent still felt a cold chill running up and down his spine. 

He was more religious than superstitious but he knew a bad omen when he saw one. 

And he felt it deep in his gut: this was no coincidence. This meant something.

“You all right, Valentine?” Gast said. Vincent looked up. He’d been staring long enough that he’d even attracted the attention of the more absent-minded scientist. Vincent nodded, putting his professional mask back into place. 

“I’d like to do this,” he said, pushing the flyer back across the table. “Do I need a recommendation from you, Professor?”

“I can certainly give you one, if you want,” Gast said, unsettled by his intensity. “But I think you just apply through the company network, same as most things.”

Vincent nodded, asked as casually as possible, “Do you know what kinds of weapons they’re testing? I was just curious.”

Gast frowned, tipped his head to one side. “I- I don’t think I know exactly, Vincent. Why, is there something you were expecting?”

Vincent started to respond when he noticed Lucrecia watching. She looked alarmed by his sudden change in demeanour, too – spooked, even. Vincent quickly shook his head. “No, no,” he said. “I apologise for the questions. I had just – heard that the creatures that live on the mountain can be more dangerous than most. Any edge I can give myself in combat would likely be useful.”

Gast brightened suddenly. “Funny you should say that! Now you mention it, I remember that they intended one of the weapons to be tested while doing guard duty to keep the mountain paths clear.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, it was something called…” He waved his hands around, like he was trying to summon the word from the air. “Materia! That’s what it was.”

Vincent nodded, lapsing into silent thought. So the weapon was called ‘materia’...it didn’t sound like something an army would use, but the bad feeling persisted just the same. He looked up, surprised to find Lucrecia was looking at him intently. He knew from her reaction that he’d been staring off a little too intensely and went to try and reassure her it was nothing, but she surprised him by speaking first.

“I was right,” she said softly, lifting her coffee cup back to her lips. “You definitely need to have more fun, Vincent.”


	4. The First Patrol

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Please R&R, comments are appreciated!

Vincent ducked low just before the bend on the mountains, reloading his pistol. It had been so far so good with clearing out the monsters, but this was an unforeseen difficulty. 

A whole cluster of kyuvilduns blocked the path ahead, the green bugs clicking amongst themselves as they devoured whatever unfortunate prey it was they had surrounded. Vincent kept down, considering his options. One or two he could easily pick off by himself, but he didn’t like his chances with an entire group. Still, left alone a group this size could cause potential havoc for the town, especially with the manor bringing more people and food to the town as a lure...

Vincent weighed his options. He’d been accepted to the experimental program pretty much immediately with the benefit of his own impeccable combat record and Gast’s recommendation, so Shin-Ra had provided him with a couple of test orbs of materia, but he hadn’t gauged their strength well enough yet to rely on them. His firearms would be the way to go in this scenario, then. One of the few benefits of being a sharpshooter was being able to pick the targets off from a distance, at least. Vincent backed up further, deciding to pick off the first one and then handle the rest when they attempted to charge him. 

With that plan in mind, he raised his pistol and focused, lining up a clean shot straight through his target’s head. He held his pistol steady, compensated for the recoil and started to squeeze the trigger – and a little more, and a little more...

Bang!

The creature yelped and fell down, dead, the rest of the group turning sharply to look at him. Vincent kept backing up as he kept firing, managing to hit another as they all converged on him but the others were getting wise to him, dodging to the side and getting faster as they approached. 

Vincent’s heart rate began to speed and he kept backing up down the trail, trying to keep his calm and forcing himself not to run but to turn and get another kyuvilduns in his sights and fire. 

The pistol jammed. 

Vincent desperately tugged at the trigger and got nothing but a clunk, clunk noise in return and then the nearest of the bugs was on him, rearing up to his height and raising its huge claws. The Turk raised his arm just in time to stop the bug splitting him straight open down the middle. He gasped as it slashed open his arm and then another one was on him and he had to use his pistol like a club to shove it away, but then he dropped it-

He was knocked back to the ground, all of his clips and weapons going everywhere. Vincent’s arms came up to protect his head and somehow he managed to turn just enough to get out from under it but even as he tried to run he knew it was futile and as he tripped he wondered-

Is this it? 

Was he really going to die like this, on this trail where no one would find him for days?

And who would even bother to look?

Vincent fell back, watching the bugs converge on him and feeling strangely distant from it all, the claws coming down on him as if in slow motion. 

Something shiny caught his eye and he turned his head to see something else he’d dropped on the trail-

An orb of materia. 

Vincent seized it, concentrating hard and throwing out his hand-

The bug’s claw pierced his palm before suddenly its arm burst into flame, spreading rapidly to the rest of its body. It reared back, screeching and Vincent stumbled back to his feet, casting fire again and spreading the blaze to the rest of the creatures. 

They all howled, the fire growing beyond anything Vincent had expected – he could feel the heat pressing at his skin even as he backed off down the mountain. 

Vincent’s breathing and pounding heart began to slow, but as he dodged around the now smouldering mass of kyuvilduns he couldn’t quite bring himself to just shake it off and carry on with clearing the mountain paths. 

He reached for his fallen pistol with a slightly shaking hand, his eye catching the materia still clutched in his other fist. 

Calling it a new weapon trial was underselling it, he thought, and underselling it by a lot. With training and refinement, he could see from one use alone how powerful the materia they’d given him was. 

With something like this, it would be easy for Shin-Ra to raise an army. 

Not that again, Valentine, he reprimanded himself. He’d spooked the scientists well enough when he’d first asked about Shin-Ra’s weapons, if he kept up this paranoia he’d be sure to get booted off any promising assignments in future. Maybe this bad feeling really was just that and no more. 

As he trudged back towards town, though, he was having a hard time convincing himself of that. Worse still, his left arm was seriously starting to ache where the creature had hit him. He needed to get it treated and quick, otherwise monster hunting in future was going to be an even bigger pain than before…

He was so lost in thought he almost didn’t hear the soft gasp of a nearby voice, or notice the woman stepping out in front of him to block his path. 

“Vincent Valentine,” Lucrecia said, trying to sound stern even as she paled at the sight of his wound, “Just what on earth have you been doing?”

Vincent stopped dead, still cradling his injured arm close to his body. It pained him to do it, but he reached into his jacket and took out an orb of materia. 

“This,” he said, holding it up for her to see. “This just saved my – it’s more powerful than I ever imagined.”

“Vincent, you’re injured,” she said, flatly. “You need help.”

“I’ll get it,” he said insistently. “But I need you to tell me what in Gaia’s name was done to make this thing.”


	5. The First Look

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Please R&R, comments are appreciated!

“This isn’t how this is meant to go, you know,” Vincent said wryly, following her into an empty lab. “I’m supposed to be the one protecting you, remember?”

“You do,” she said, passing him the roll of bandages. “But everyone needs help once in a while, Mr Bodyguard.”

“You- don’t have to call me that, Dr Crescent,” he said, hopping up on a table at her direction. She looked over at him, raising an eyebrow and he flushed, hiding his eyes under his fringe and focusing on undoing the buttons on his sleeve so he could roll it up. “You can just call me Vincent if you want. You’re my superior, after all.”

“We all report to Dr Gast, Vincent,” she said, a bit of hesitation in her voice when she tried out his name. “You and I are on the same level here.”

“No, I didn’t mean-” He cleared his throat, not having the words to explain. He was a Turk, after all, and she a scientist. His skills involved killing things and keeping everything running smoothly. He’d been commended as one of the best at what he did, but that still didn’t make what he did all that valuable or important, especially compared to her…

She was still staring at him. He shook his head. “Never mind.”

The blood had stained through his shirtsleeve by now and the wound was starting to stick to the fabric because of it. He tried not to let on how painful it was to yank it free, but he didn’t think he succeeded because suddenly she was in his space, taking his arm and saying, “Let me. It must be difficult to do that yourself.”

“No, Dr Crescent, you’ll get blood on your hands-”

“You can call me Lucrecia, too, you know,” she said, totally ignoring him. She looked up under her lashes, her eyes sparkling. “And don’t worry. You don’t get anywhere as a scientists by being squeamish.”

His objections died in his throat when she looked at him like that. He let her help him finish pinning back his sleeve and examine his cut. She winced empathetically. 

“Looks painful. It should bandage up all right, though,” she said, and hurried off to fetch some water.

“I can take it from-”

“Nope,” she said, grabbing a bowl from the cupboard and filling it up. “I can take care of this! It’s lucky we’re both up so early, though; you can’t imagine how fast the other Turks go through our healing materials.”

“Healing materials...” Vincent repeated to himself. Suddenly a lightbulb went off in his head. “Wait. I think they issued me with some cure materia.” He rummaged around in his pockets as Lucrecia set down the bowl of water and shyly took his arm to try and clean it. Vincent was so distracted trying to find it that he didn’t realise what she was doing until she touched a wet cloth to the wound and the sting made him jump. 

She stopped immediately. “Sorry. Does that hurt?”

“No, it’s just-” He started trying to pull away again, but she wouldn’t let him, keeping her grip and gently trying to clean off the blood. “It isn’t your responsibility to do this, I can take care of it-”

“I want to help you,” she said. She looked him dead in the eye. “May I?”

His throat went dry. He stopped complaining, let her clean the blood around the wound. His other hand gripped the cure materia, hovering over the wound. 

“Can I?” she said, gesturing to the materia. He passed it to her wordlessly, almost hypnotised by the intent way she took it and focused on his wound like there was nothing more important to her right that moment. 

The materia began to glow and Lucrecia moved it to the top of his wound and began to move slowly down. Vincent felt a strange tickling feeling, watching in amazement as his skin literally knitted itself back together. 

But that was secondary to the thrill that went down his spine when she lifted the materia, and gently ran her thumb over the newly mended skin. “Look at that,” she said. “Good as new.”

“Good as new,” he repeated, dumbly. 

She looked up and their eyes locked, their gazes connected. He wanted to look away but couldn’t bring himself too, especially as he could see something incredible. 

Lucrecia felt it too. 

Vincent cleared his throat, trying to think of something to say. He’d been alone for so long now, he didn’t think he’d ever see someone looking at him this way, and not so soon…

And not a co-worker.

The thought must have occurred to Lucrecia at the exact same time, because she put the materia back in his hand and let go of his arm. “It’s concentrated mako,” she said. He stared at her, confused. She giggled. “You wanted to know how materia works. When mako is drawn from the Planet and concentrated, it becomes materia. I don’t know how they become different types, though, I never majored in that sort of thing.”

He nodded, still struggling to think of something to say...still wondering if he should say something. 

She turned away from him then, just a little. Right when he was about to resign himself to letting the moment pass- she lingered.

“Listen, Vincent-” She swallowed, wouldn’t look at him. “My career is very important to me. Professor Gast is one of the finest minds at Shin-Ra and I’m really looking forward to working with him. Do you know what I mean?”

“Yes. I think so…” He hopped down from the table. “If – if there’s something I can help you with-”

But she shook her head. “No, no, it’s not that… I just want you to understand that I’ll do whatever I can to break new ground here. And I’m – I’m glad to have people like you and like the Professor to work with. All I want you to do is keep being yourself, keep yourself well, and… and I’ll do anything I can to help you advance, too. You have a similar drive to me, just in a different way. Don’t you think?”

And she looked over at him again, holding his gaze with a charged look in her eyes, like she was trying to tell him something through expression alone. He might have been inexperienced with this sort of thing – with people in general, really – but he was wise enough to intuit that she wanted to set a boundary here, even as she was offering him her help and expressing kinship with him. 

Somehow that made it harder. It made it harder to him to open his mouth and say, I’m not like you. You’re amazing, and smart, and driven. I just survive, from one moment to the next. 

I took that trial to test the materia because I had a stupid bad dream and a stupider bad feeling that Shin-Ra is up to something, and I want in on what. 

But he couldn’t begin to find the words to say all that. Instead he cleared his throat, deciding to start smaller, by crossing another small hurdle. He leant a little closer, steeled his nerve and said, “Lucrecia-”

“Would you help me, too, Dr Crescent?” a new voice cut in. 

The two of them startled, seeing a new man stood in the doorway. He was wiry, shorter than them both, with glasses perched on his nose and thin hairs from his fringe hanging down into his eyes. Vincent frowned, not recognising him, but Lucrecia stood straighter, brushing her hair back out of her eyes again. 

“Professor Hojo! We were just-”

“Talking about work, I see,” he said, then spotted the materia in Vincent’s hand. “Ah! You must be the one testing out the new materia. That’s good, but it’s not even close to the scope of what I hope the rest of us will achieve on this project. I’m glad I arrived in time to kick things up a notch. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Vincent didn’t know what he meant by that, but Lucrecia was eagerly nodding, seemingly nervous in the new arrival’s presence.

Then Hojo turned and walked to the doorway, leaving the two of them a dumbfounded. He turned back a moment later, chuckling and saying, “Well? Are you going to stand there all day?”

“No, of course not-” Lucrecia quickly followed, and Vincent let her go, finding himself foolishly disappointed that she didn’t spare a glance back at him before disappearing out the door. It left him in the room with nothing but the mess of blood he’d created on the rag and the bowl of water to clean, alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: A wild Hojo appears! Things are going to start picking up from here, so I hope you stick with me.


	6. The First Argument

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Please R & R as usual! Comments are appreciated :D

A/N: Please R & R as usual! Comments are appreciated :D

Chapter 6: The First Argument

After Hojo’s arrival, the days past in an increasingly fast blur. He and the scientists were all preoccupied by writing of the a proposition for a new project, but Vincent noticed that there was tensions between the scientists. While Hojo and Lucrecia were practically besides themselves with excitement that kept them working well into the evening, Gast was much less enthused. He worked alongside them as usual, but the absent-minded scientist barely spoke outside of answering questions relating to their work. 

Vincent didn’t know what he was like at work normally – perhaps he was just the type who gave something his undivided attention until he got it done. But that assumption was dashed shortly afterwards when Hojo set down his coffee on the desk one morning and said, “What’s the matter with you, Faremis? You’re almost as quiet as Valentine nowadays!”

Lucrecia glanced between them, pausing in her writing. She looked anxiously between the two men. Vincent paused in his paperwork, also ceasing to write. He’d gotten the impression that she hated conflict, but outside of typing up official documents to save them time, he didn’t know the details of what they worked on and didn’t have the standing to intervene. 

“It’s nothing,” he said. 

Lucrecia cleared her throat. “Professor, if there was something that concerned you, I think we ought to know about it. You’re the most experienced of us, and this is potentially a high profile project. I wouldn’t want anything to go wrong if you have concerns.”

Hojo fidgeted in his seat but conceded, “Right. Exactly.”

Gast fiddled with the pen in his hand, considering. He set it down, looking at each of them in turn – and then looked over at Vincent. 

“They had you sign a non-disclosure agreement, right, Vincent? I can never remember what forms they have for General Admin that are different than ours.”

“Yes, of course.”

“Right, good.” He rubbed his temples. “If we’re going to talk about this openly, I need to know I can trust everyone in this room.”

Hojo folded his arm and leant back in his chair. “Just tell the two of us if it’s such an issue.”

“No, I can’t.” Gast frowned. “Not for a potential security and safety problem.”

Vincent sat straighter. “You think one the project you’re writing this brief for could pose a safety issue?”

Hojo rolled his eyes. “Of course. I should have known.”

Gast looked at the younger scientist sharply as Lucrecia shrank into her seat more and more. “Don’t give me that attitude,” he said, the venom in his tone so unusual for the gentle scientist that all three of them stared at him. “As leader of this team, you are all ultimately my responsibility and that includes keeping you safe.” He saw Vincent was about to interrupt and raised his hand. “No, Valentine. You might be in charge of our physical safety but the overall wellbeing over the team – which includes you, by the way, Valentine – rests with me. And I take it very seriously.”

Hojo rolled his eyes, but Vincent noticed he couldn’t bring himself to interrupt. 

“But what is the danger you’re concerned about?”

Hojo and Gast exchanged looks once more. “There’s a new organism we wish to study – JENOVA,” Gast said. “But if we wish to work at all efficiently, we would need to house her here, in Nibelheim.”

“And you believe the specimen is too dangerous for that?”

“Yes. She is a living sample and known to be wily in the previous places she has been housed. We have no containment here that could hold her adequately and I have no desire to place everyone in the manor in immediate peril should she escape.”

Hojo scowled. “Because you worry too much! JENOVA is a marvel, likely a Cetra! If she has intelligence, she can be reasoned with – all it would take is ingenuity.”

Vincent leant back in his seat, considering. He hadn’t seen the name anywhere on the ShinRa internal network when he’d still been scrolling to find anything that proved his strange dreams true or false. Likely that meant she was important to ShinRa, especially if they believed her to be a Cetra. 

But even that sounded too good to be true. In all the stories he’d read, the Cetra were all but extinct…

“Vincent?” Lucrecia asked. 

“Hm?” He looked up, found them staring at him. 

“What would you suggest?” she asked. 

“...Oh.” He cleared his throat, rested gloved hands on the table. “Once you submit the brief, how long until it is accepted or denied?”

“A month or so.”

“And how long until the main chambers of the new reactor at Nibelheim are completed?”

“About the same amount of time,” Gast said. “Are you suggesting-”

“Yes. Have them alter the designs to make a chamber to contain the specimen. The need for security in the reactor is high anyway, and the building is new, so that avoids adapting a building as old as the manor for containing her. And in the event of something going wrong, the risk will be far outside the village, which increases the response time the Turks and other staff have to respond while providing an opportunity to warn the villagers, should the need arise.” He realised he’d been talking so long they were staring at him. He cleared his throat and looked down. “...is what I would suggest, if you were looking for a solution.”

Gast and Lucrecia looked pleased, but Hojo didn’t. “And when we need to take samples? We just trail all the way into the mountains to get to the reactor?”

Vincent met his gaze with an intense one of his own. With his eyes having a reddish inflection, he was often able to unnerve people merely by the strength of his expression, but he’d been unable to do that with Hojo yet. It seemed to have the adverse affect, even – he often found Hojo watching or staring with a curious look, like everyone around him was as much a specimen to be studied as whatever he had under the microscope that day. 

“Then I would simply recommend planning far in advance to get a larger sample that will sustain many days or weeks worth of work. If more is needed, myself and another Turk will just take an ad-hoc trip up the mountain alongside one of you,” he said. He ignored Hojo, turning instead to Gast. “However, I would insist on knowing the risk the creature can pose when loose before I’d recommend bringing her near any of you.”

Gast nodded, about to open his mouth and speak when suddenly Hojo stood from the table, his face pinched. 

“This is insufferable,” he snapped. “The two of you might fear her, but I do not! And I cannot bear roadblocks to my work. Faremis, I beg you to reconsider – house her right here and if you want I will be the only to enter her chamber.”

“Professor,” Vincent tried. “I have to ensure your safety-”

“Babysit the other two if it pleases you, Valentine,” he said, laughing bitterly. “But leave me out of it.”

And he turned, marching out of the room and slamming the door behind them. They all sat stunned for a second before Lucrecia rose from the table, mumbling, “I’d better go after him-” and racing out of the room. 

Gast and Vincent were left at the table, alone. A second of awkward silence passed before they met each other’s eyes. Then, surprisingly, Gast smiled – the usual fatherly smile he gave in moments of tension. 

“Don’t mind him,” he said, rising from the table to get a drink. “He gets like that sometimes.”

Vincent turned in his seat. “Professor, what I asked – about the risk the creature poses? How can she be stopped if she – whatever she is – escapes?”

Gast poured himself some tea. He turned back to face Vincent, a sombre look in his eyes. “To be frank with you, Vincent,” he said. “If she gets out, she can’t be stopped.”

“What…?”

“You’re the best of the best here for combat, I admit that.” He took a sip of his drink, staring at his reflection on the surface of the liquid. “But the best even you could do would be to stop her killing everyone in the manor, then the village.”


	7. The First Warning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Please R & R as usual! Comments are appreciated :D

It took Vincent awhile to fall asleep that night. He kept replaying the conversation from earlier over and over in his head. Dr Crescent had headed after Hojo and apparently calmed him down enough that he returned to the lab later, whereupon all three scientists kept working on the brief and didn’t raise the subject again. Vincent promised to back Gast up if he pressed for keeping the specimen away from the manor – for what it was worth – but the scientist seemed drained of energy. Even Lucrecia bid him a half-hearted good night before retiring for the evening. 

He found himself tossing and turning, wild ideas of what this creature could be like running through his head. There were plenty of creatures he wouldn’t try and take on alone, but the idea that something existed that a whole group of Turks couldn’t take out? That was madness.

He turned over once more, burrowing down and shutting his eyes. He was too tired to think about this now, it could wait until tomorrow…

A dark tank of water, bubbling particles travelling upwards and rushing towards the surface.

Faces flashed in and out of sight – mutated, awful faces with their mouths contorted in expressions of agony, fangs protruding from their bottom lips. 

Bloated fists raised and slammed down against glass, frantically trying to break the surface. A crack formed, turning into a whole web and growing large enough that water started to leak through and then the whole thing gave, water rushing outwards and the creature falling out onto the walkway. 

The creature had the shape of a man but all of its limbs were swollen and discoloured. Its gurgles turned into whimpers and it raised its head to look up. 

Someone was looming above, looking down on the creature with critical eyes. 

“Still not enough,” he said. “I’ll prove this theory, no matter how long it takes.”

And as the creature tried pathetically, desperately, to scoot back on his hands and knees, the scientist advanced on him – his face coming into view. 

Hojo.

Vincent startled awake, panting hard. He was sweating bullets just like the last dream he’d had and his heart was pounding out of his chest. Throwing back the covers, he climbed out and walked over to his window, trying to use the cold to shake off the clamminess all over his skin. 

He rubbed his arm, trying to tell himself to get a grip. He was a Turk, for goodness’ sake, he shouldn’t be this rattled over a stupid dream. But still – still - 

It was more than just the discussion about JENOVA that had bothered him, he realised. 

It was Hojo, too. 

He’d talked to both Gast and Lucrecia multiple times about more than just work, found them both personable and conscientious. But Hojo...Hojo had barely spoken to him, to any of them about anything that wasn’t work. Supposedly he and Gast were friends, and it was entirely possible that his impatience and near-obsession with his work were just part of his nature, but…

But something about him unnerved Vincent. Everything he said was pragmatic to the extreme, and now he was impatient to bring a dangerous creature into the manor with them. If this dream was accurate, the real danger wasn’t JENOVA: it was Hojo. 

Vincent rubbed his temples, trying to get a handle on his racing mind. He’d dreamt of Shin-Ra using new weapons right before Gast had told him about the materia trial. Vincent had been watching the news for anything about Wutai, but his weird dream had come at least partially true – Shin-Ra was expanding into more experimental weapons…

A strange thought crossed his mind. Right before he’d had a bad dream last time, he’d seen a young woman outsider the manor – a woman with green eyes. On a whim, Vincent drew back the curtain. 

His room looked out at the side of the manor, and if he craned his neck he could see down to the front of the building. 

And standing at a building across the street, peering out from behind the wall, was the exact same woman. 

A chill went right down Vincent’s spine. On impulse he shoved his shoes on and threw his coat on over his pajamas, racing out of the door. He made it to the doors but by the time he’d gotten through the manor, the woman was already gone. 

Vincent stood out in the cold, shivering in just his coat and pajamas, his heart still pounding in his ears. 

He sighed, reaching a hand into his hair and pulling at the roots. Planet, what was he doing? He must be losing his mind. 

Vincent turned around and trudged back into the manor, determined to just throw himself back down on his bed and sleep until morning.


	8. The First Reprisal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Please R & R as usual! Comments are appreciated :D
> 
> Since someone asked – I’m planning to update roughly once a week, though there might be more frequent updates around chapters I’m looking forward to, but I make no promises on it – I’m writing this as a passion project/self-indulgent fic, especially since Vincrecia/VinLu doesn’t seem very popular.

“We got it!” Lucrecia cried, racing into the lab brandishing a piece of paper. Everyone looked up. 

“Got what, Dr Crescent?” Vincent asked. She gave him a look – he had been backsliding into calling her by title lately – but then softened and smiled. 

“The JENOVA Project,” she enthused. “They read our brief and awarded it to us.”

“Excellent, Lucrecia!” Hojo cried, bolting upright from the table and looking over her shoulder. “Good, it looks like we can get started straight away…”

Gast and Vincent exchanged glances before Gast rose to take a look too. “Well, that’s good news,” Gast said, joining the three of them while Vincent respectfully hung back. 

Vincent didn’t like to interrupt their peaceful moment, but the bad feeling from the day before persisted. “And where will the specimen be placed?”

The bad feeling compounded as Hojo turned and stared at him, then pointedly rolled his eyes.

“At the reactor,” Gast said, fixing Hojo with a hard look. “As discussed. I’m the project lead, and I have the final say. So that’s how it’s going to be.”

Hojo’s eyes flashed briefly and Vincent had a sudden sense of deja vu from the nightmare he’d just had and he shuddered. Hojo didn’t notice, still grinding his jaw in anger. But then Lucrecia cleared her throat and the anger in his eyes passed as quickly as it had come. 

“We should celebrate,” she said, and when Hojo gave her a look she sheepishly added, “Just for a minute?”

“There was some cake left in the kitchen,” Gast said, pushing past Hojo and humming cheerfully as he headed out of the room. “I’ll go and fetch it.”

“Professor, I can do that-” Vincent started to say, but it was too late: he was gone already. Vincent considered chasing after him, but didn’t want to leave Lucrecia in here alone when the air around Hojo was still so sour. And sure enough-

“He’s a fool,” Hojo muttered. Vincent and Lucrecia locked eyes, Lucrecia wringing her hands and clearly uncomfortable. The Turk cleared his throat, about to say something when Hojo added, “Everyone knows that anything left in the kitchen will disappear within the hour.”

Lucrecia chuckled, looked over at Vincent. “Would – would you mind heading into town for something, Vincent?”

He smiled right back. “Sure. I can do that.”

But his smile dropped when he noticed Hojo watching him, a cold look in his eye. 

~ ~

Their little celebration didn’t last long, though, all three scientists too anxious to get started with preparations for JENOVA’s arrival. It gave Vincent more to do than usual, with administrative duties to handle. He was requesting as many safeguards for JENOVA as possible, even with her being contained in the reactor and he got the distinct impression that what remained of Hojo’s good mood was rapidly vanishing and his annoyance with Gast was rapidly shifting to Vincent. 

He even unexpectedly stood and left the room multiple times, never announcing why but usually returning some minutes later as though nothing had happened. 

It was starting to unnerve Vincent and he was about to call the professor out on it when suddenly a couple of Turks came into the room. They looked around the room and walked straight into Vincent’s office by the lab.

Vincent set his pen down. “Can I help you?” he asked. 

“Are – are you Vincent Valentine?”

He nodded. “That’s me. Can – can I help you?”

They exchanged glances. “Well, we – we were checking the combat simulator and noticed that you’ve beaten it on the highest difficulty, at all levels.”

“Yes, I did that a few months ago,” he said. They exchanged glances again, staring at one another. Then one of them held out his hand. Vincent tipped his head to one side, momentarily confused, then took it with his own. “Oh – how do you do? It’s nice to meet you?”

They both chuckled, confusing him more. “Mr Valentine-”

“Vincent.”

“Vincent, we came to talk to you about this,” one said, passing him a flyer. He opened it, finding a poster reading SHIN-RA EXHIBITION TOURNAMENT. “Someone put your name forward for this – Shin-Ra wanted to demo their new weapons. You’re testing one of those, right?”

“Yes, materia – but who gave you my name?”

“We don’t know, it was just on a sign up list, and given that all the other Turks came to us in person, I assumed someone else did it on your behalf.”

Vincent scanned the poster again. At the bottom were little warnings about the potential dangers of participating. He remembered again all the times Hojo had mysteriously left the office without explaining where he was going and been absent far longer than a simple break would have required…

“What’s going on?” Lucrecia asked from the door of his office. Beyond her the other two scientists were watching the scene closely, Hojo staring Vincent down just as he had been doing before. 

“A tournament, Dr Crescent,” he said, handing her the flyer. 

“Huh.” She studied the poster. “Looks...exciting.”

“We’re trying to talk Mr Valentine into demonstrating materia for us,” one of the Turks said, flushing a little when Lucrecia looked over at him. “You’d vouch for his skill, right?”

“Dr Crescent, you don’t need to -”

“Absolutely!” Lucrecia said, eyes bright. “Vincent is the best there is. Just watch back the simulator tapes if you don’t believe me.”

Vincent frowned. He had no idea she’d pay attention to such a thing – he avoided talking to her about anything combat-related on purpose, certain as a scientist she’d find parts of his work distasteful and brutish. As their eyes met he realised he’d evidently been wrong about that. She gave him a luminous smile then and he felt, suddenly, paralysed to look away.

“Will you do it?” the Turk pressed. “Please; we’re really short of human participants?”

“Sure,” Vincent said, not looking away from Lucrecia and not really listening. “Whatever you want.”

“Great!” the Turk said, dumping the poster down on the table. “See you tonight then!”

Vincent startled. “What- tonight?”

“It’s tonight?” Lucrecia said, equally surprised. 

From the doorway of his office, Hojo chuckled. “Looks like you won’t have a ton of time to prepare, Turk. I’m at least looking forward to seeing how the mighty Vincent Valentine fares against Shin-Ra’s latest technology.”

Vincent met his gaze with a steady one of his own. He’d often been told his reddish-brown eyes made his stare quite unnerving, and it had made him self-conscious about looking other people in the eye for much of his life. 

Now, though, he felt no such reservation as he stared Hojo down. “Don’t worry,” he said, his affect flat and his eyes flinty. “You won’t be disappointed.”


	9. The First Round

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Please R & R as usual! Comments are appreciated :D Thanks to everybody who has so far. The story should be picking up from this point on.

The tournament was a little bigger than Vincent had been expecting. The other Turks had put together a rough wooden amphitheatre in the trail up the mountains, complete with sheds where they were must have been storing some of the machines. 

Vincent’s suspicions were increased when Hojo elected to come with them. “Are you sure you want to watch this, Professor?” he asked as the four of them walked down the path together. The Professor had been staring off into the distance, but he looked over as if surprised to be addressed. He pushed his glasses up his nose and looked over at the Turk, expectant. Vincent cleared his throat. “I mean, I wouldn’t want this to be a waste of time – for you.”

“Nonsense!” He pushed his long hair over his shoulders and straightened his lab coat. “I’m interested in every aspect of Shin-Ra’s development.”

Vincent doubted it, but he was careful not to stare at his colleague. He’d been thinking hour on hour how foolish it was to put stock in the strange dreams he was having lately, but he just couldn’t seem to shake the feeling off. 

Lucrecia caught him looking into the middle distance. “Nervous?”

“Huh?” He snapped to attention, found her watching him. Right, the tournament. “I – I suppose so. A little.”

“I’ve never seen you use the materia before,” she said. “Or in combat. I didn’t know you’d beaten the simulator.”

“I didn’t think it was worth mentioning,” he said sincerely. Lucrecia chuckled and he flushed. “Is – is that unusual?”

“Not many people have done it,” Gast said suddenly, adjusting his glasses. “I heard the computer is quite an advanced program – the one in Midgar is the best there is.”

“Really?” Vincent thought back to his experiences with the training program, perplexed. “I found a lot of exploits in its programming.”

Lucrecia burst into giggles and Gast chuckled, too, leaving Vincent perplexed. “Did – did I say something funny?”

“No,” Hojo said flatly. “They’re laughing because you’re so forthright and apparently unaware how all the other Turks perceive you.”

That just made Vincent frown more. “Oh,” he said. “And how is that?”

“I think they’re a little intimidated, personally,” Lucrecia said, good-naturedly nudging him. “People have no idea what you’re thinking, and then you go and beat the simulator at the highest difficulties. It can be a little...unnerving.”

“Especially with those eyes,” Hojo commented dryly. 

That pulled Vincent up short. He’d spent most of his time on this earth just surviving and the rest of it minding his own business, and somewhere in the middle of that he’d gotten good at sharpshooting. It had never occurred to him other people might be taking note of what he was doing, at least it hadn’t until Veld had helped recommended him for this new reassignment.

They had reached the mock arena and the scientists went to take their places at their seats, behind the glass guards that had been put up. 

“You’ll be all right behind this?” Vincent said, eyeing the barricades. 

“Vincent, we’re fine,” Lucrecia said. “Go kick butt already!”

It sounded so odd coming from her he couldn’t help but laugh. His smile dropped when Hojo settled into his chair and threw out a smug, “Good luck…”

Vincent walked off down into the arena, looking for some guidance about his first match. He found out that his first match was against another Turk, went looking in the little preparation area they’d erected for his opponent. 

He found him sooner rather than later, cleared his throat to get the man’s attention. The young Turk looked up, confused. 

“Hi,” Vincent said, stretching out his hand. “Vincent Valentine. I think I’m your opponent for the first round.”

The young Turk paled. “Oh, shit,” he said. 

~ ~

The first few rounds were nothing notable for Vincent – various Turks with new weapons engaged him in rounds of combat, but their experimental weapons were either much less effective than the materia he used, or more often, they were clearly just inexperienced with them. 

He breezed through his rounds with ease and was just starting to switch off from actively worrying about the opponents he was facing when the noise of the crowd suddenly changed. 

“Our first seed, Mr Valentine,” called an announcer. “Will now be facing some cutting edge Shin-Ra technology! Ladies and gentlemen – the Sweeper!”

The crowd roared their approval and Vincent looked around the arena in case the new opponent would be descending from the sky. He caught Lucrecia’s eye where she was sitting in the stands and noticed she was pointing behind him just as the rumbling noise started.

Vincent whipped around just in time to see a massive mech burst out of the shed in the back. It rolled into the little arena and he had to dived out of the way as it raced right past him and then made a series of rough whirring noises as it raised a double set of gatling guns. 

On instinct Vincent raised a wall of ice and ducked down as a rain of bullets hailed down his way. Shards of ice rained down into his hair as it tried in vain to hit him and he charged up the materia again, reinforcing his shield until the gunfire finally, mercifully, ceased. 

Quickly he stood and peered out behind his ice shield at the sweeper. Smoke was issuing from its guns and it rolled back and away from him, clearly intending to recharge its weapons. 

Normally Vincent would have just peppered the thing with bullets from a distance, but this was supposed to be a demo of the materia, not his marksmanship skills. 

But there was one materia he could rely on to work well against a machine: lightning. He found his preference lay with ice, but he quickly switched it and prepared to strike. 

Not being sure how close he’d need to be to break its armour, Vincent darted out of his cover and threw up more ice shields just in case, stopping behind one to charge up the lightning materia. 

But the sweeper had another trick up its sleeve: a massive flamethrower sprayer his direction and Vincent’s ice shield wasn’t strong enough to slow it down – he finished his spell and struck the machine with a bolt from the sky before he was able to dodge back and the heat of the flames went right across his arm.

Vincent cried out, dodging back and turning the ice materia on his arm to douse the flames. His skin went from burning hot to painfully cold within half a second and he couldn’t help but put his other hand to his injured arm to assess the damage -

The sweeper crackled and charged at him, knocking Vincent onto his back and pinning him straight under a mechanical foot. Vincent cried out, the pressure on his chest making it impossible to breathe. He tried to push the machine off of him but it was too heavy and some of the materia had fallen out of his hands and onto the floor. 

The crowd was yelling all around him, but the cease fire call he’d been expecting didn’t come. 

The sweeper had won, but they weren’t calling it off.

Vincent had never expected to make it to his thirties, if he was really honest with himself. 

But he never expected to go out like this. 

His arm fell to his side as the machine raised its foot to crush him into the dirt. His hand landed on one of the orbs of materia that he’d dropped, he wasn’t sure which. 

But he raised his hand and activated the materia, adrenaline giving him a surge of power. 

The good thing was that the materia he’d grabbed was lightning materia, striking the machine square in the back. 

The bad thing was it exploded right on top of him.


	10. The First Rebellion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Please R & R as usual! Comments are appreciated :D Thanks to everybody who has so far.

Vincent instinctively threw his arms over his face as the machine exploded right above him, the boiling heat biting into his jacket and already injured arm. The machine was going crazy above him, its body jerking and spasming until it abruptly lifted its metal foot off his chest and Vincent was able to turn onto his side and drag himself out from under it. 

His vision was blurry, he couldn’t hear anything but a high pitched ringing – he could vaguely see a glowing orb beneath him: one of the materia he’d dropped. Blind to everything else, Vincent lunged for it and seized hold, hoping against hope that it was Cure materia.

It wasn’t: it was Ice.

Backing off from the collapsing machine behind him, Vincent immediately ran the Ice materia across his burning arm and cooled the air all around him, finally managing to get himself some space to breathe. 

As the machine stuttered to a stop and collapsed to the ground, Vincent’s vision and hearing finally started to clear. The crowd was crying out, panicked, Shin-Ra troops trying to keep them in their seats. Lucrecia was standing, pressed up against the glass and scanning the arena below. The ice mist began to clear and she spotted him there, the two of them locking gazes. 

Her lips parted. He was convinced he could hear the relieved gasp of, “Vincent…” even with so much distance between them. 

She smiled and he smiled back, relief at being alive giving way to exhaustion. 

The shock amongst the crowd gave way to deafening applause, except amongst some of the Shin-Ra troops who looked put out at having to drag the wreck of the sweeper away. Vincent cradled his arm – burnt and sore, nothing his Cure materia wouldn’t fix up – but just as he picked up the rest of his fallen materia and was turning to go, someone stopped him. 

“You’ve got one more,” the trooper said. Vincent blinked. 

“What?”

“One more round,” he said. “Organic lifeform. They want to see how the materia performs against it.” At Vincent’s dumbfounded look he said, “Don’t tell me no one told you?”

Vincent shook his head, absently looking out over the crowd again as he tried to process the shock. His gaze landed on the three scientists again. Lucrecia and Gast were looking his direction with clear concern, but what surprised him most was that Hojo was actually looking up, and for once he didn’t look bored or annoyed. 

He was smiling. 

Vincent turned back to the trooper. “I need a recess. Five minutes,” he said and without waiting for the trooper’s permission he turned and walked straight back into the mock ready room the other Turks had been using. 

Some of the people he’d defeated were there and Vincent froze up for all of a second before the whole room broke into cheers and smiles, clapping him on the back and congratulating him for defeating the Sweeper. 

Others commiserated about his cuts and scrapes, and especially the bruise on his arm. Vincent’s mastery of the Cure materia wasn’t good enough yet to fix the whole thing, so he asked around if anyone had anything that would numb the pain for a while so he could finish out the tournament. 

There were a couple of exchanged glances before one of them produced a pill bottle and said, “Here. It’s not a full prescription, but you can have the rest of this.”

He tossed it to Vincent, who read the ingredients. It didn’t look like any over the counter medicine he’d ever seen. “What is this?”

“Part of another of Shin-Ra’s programs. They’re looking into finding ways of numbing pain completely, of making their troops endurance better.” Glances were exchanged again around the room. “But you didn’t hear it from me.”

“Right.” Vincent nodded. “Thanks.” The roar of the crowd was getting louder and louder – doubtless they were getting impatient for the next round to start. “Well, I’d better-”

“Give ‘em hell, Valentine,” he said. “We’re all rooting for you!”

And they cheered again. Vincent fidgeted, a little embarrassed, but smiled back and nodded once more. He downed two of the pills, grateful when someone passed him their water bottle to help wash it down. 

It was incredible medication: it felt like it kicked in within seconds and the burn on his arm was no more painful than a small bruise would’ve been.

Then he headed out into the ring. 

But the sight he’d been expecting wasn’t the sight he’d got. 

A big behemoth or a dragon might have been a good choice of opponent – they were dangerous animals that often attacked travellers around Mount Nibel and sometimes strayed too close to Nibelheim itself. 

But what faced him in the ring was a horned bison. 

Vincent frowned, looking around the ring for guidance but not getting any. 

A horned bison? How could they expect him to fight this creature – they were peaceful animals, only dangerous if provoked or when they had young. There was no way-

The bison roared and reared up and he had to roll to get out of the way of its charge. 

As it blazed past him, he spotted the cause of its anger: a bloody gaping wound on one arm. 

The pieces came together and formed an ugly picture – the Turks and troopers had only been informed of this mock-tournament at the last minute. They’d had to scramble to get it together, and they hadn’t had time to catch anything more deadly than a bison. 

Vincent got that. He understood it, but still…

Again the bison came at him and again he avoided it. The roar of the crowd was changing in pitch now, confused why it was Vincent wasn’t attacking. 

Vincent didn’t know either, not really. Just that he had an awful feeling in the pit of his stomach, and looking at the creature he passed so often in the fields and thinking about killing it...he just couldn’t do it. 

But then what? They wanted a demo of the materia, probably wouldn’t let him out of here until they got one. Unless he could get out of this somehow…

His mind suddenly went to the one materia he hadn’t really demonstrated yet. One that no one would expect, that could well be seen as breaking the tournament rules. 

But to hell with it. 

When the bison charged again Vincent put his plan into action. This time he stood his ground, waiting until the last second to cast Ice to trip the creature up. Then as soon as it skidded to a stop he cast the materia a second time, this time focusing around its limbs to hold it in place. 

The bison roared indignantly and Vincent moved straight in front of it, getting its attention. 

He pulled his Quicksliver from his jacket and held it up. The creature recognised it, fearfully trying to get free, but Vincent made a show of holding his arm out to the side and dropping the gun to the floor. 

The creature’s roars quieted as it tried to make sense of whether Vincent was a predator or not.

He approached the creature, the crowd gone deathly silent as he circled around to its injured side and slowly, slowly, knelt down to get within range. He pulled out the healing materia, holding his breath as he got closer and closer to the bison. 

If the creature ripped itself free from the ice, it could gore him to death within seconds. 

He steeled himself and closed the distance, pressing the cure materia to the wound. 

Vincent focused hard, noticing for the first time how tired all this materia usage was making him. But he pressed on, not allowing himself to stop until the creature’s wound began to knit together. 

Maybe he was good enough to use this materia, when he had to be. 

Soon the wound was healed and Vincent stood back just in time to get out of the way as the rest of the ice began to loosen and melt. The bison was free.

But it just stared at him, blinking slowly. Then it lowed a happy, peaceful sound and butted its head against his arm. Vincent smiled softly. 

He turned to face the crowd. Some of them were shocked, others looked beside themselves with worry at the danger he’d just put himself in. Just like Lucrecia and Gast.

But not Hojo. The professor was no longer smiling, but was watching intently, like Vincent was some kind of oddity he couldn’t make sense of. 

Vincent returned the stare with a penetrating one of his own. He’d often been told his red eyes were unnerving and he didn’t often get to put them to good use. Now was as good a time as any. Putting the weird dreams he’d been having aside, so much about the manor and Hojo just got under his skin. 

The thought he’d somehow put everyone on the back foot – it pleased him. He felt a power he hadn’t known in ages course through him. 

As a trooper approached, Vincent stepped in front of the bison, his protective posture clear.

“We’re done here,” he told the trooper. “Open the back door; I’m seeing this creature back to the fields.”

His tone brooked no argument. The trooper nodded.


	11. The First Visit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Please R & R as usual! Comments are appreciated :D Thanks to everybody who has so far. It’s not the most plot-heavy chapter but I actually really liked this one – lots of cute character bits and it links in to some stuff that’ll happen later.

After the chaos of the last round, Lucrecia was beside herself when Vincent didn’t return to them so they could all go back to the manor together. 

“I bet he’s hurt,” she said to Gast, who was sitting beside her. “That round with the machine really hurt him. And he looked tired before that!”

“It’s probably that, then,” Hojo chipped in, surprising her. Normally he had no interest in Vincent whatever, outside of where the Turk’s duties affected his work. He stood, brushing down his coat and slacks. “I imagine he went back to rest. It is the evening now and we have an escort of our own to get back to the manor.”

Lucrecia could see the sense in that, but…

She bit her lip, looking over at Gast. The senior scientist was a bit scatter-brained and bad at picking up cues sometimes, but he seemed to understand what she was trying to silently say with the urgent look in her eye. He nodded. 

When they got back to the manor, the two of them stealthily split off from Hojo and went about finding Vincent’s quarters. It took a bit of doing at first – all the Turks who remained on the grounds had been given rooms pretty far from the rest of the staff, and the manor and the other buildings on the complex could be kind of a maze at times. 

But with the excitement from the tournament there were plenty of people around to ask and they finally found someone who could point them in the right direction. 

The two headed there straight away, and Professor Gast was pensive as they walked.

“Are you worried, too?”

“Hm?” He looked up. “Yes, of course – all my subordinates are my concern. I was just thinking…”

“Go on,” she urged.

“That last round, he really surprised me,” he said. “Up til now, Valentine seemed like the ideal Shin-Ra employee, you know? Skilled to the point of near mastery of his field. Efficient to the point of being almost mechanical in nature. Logical and incisive, but never speaking out of place unless spoken to. Barely speaking at all, actually…”

Lucrecia hesitated. She had seen that in Vincent too, of course, to the point that she’d been a little intimidated at first by him. His unnatural red eyes made his eyes look even sharper when he focused on something, and it took coaxing to get conversation out of him that didn’t relate to work. 

But she’d also noticed how rarely he did look people in the eye, maybe because he feared his stare was unnerving. Soon after that realisation she started to see how his reserved nature when talking maybe wasn’t just a hyper-focus on his work, but an intense shyness. 

And once she’d spotted that, his red eyes stopped being intimidating for her at all. Vincent really was just an awkward young man, a little unsure of himself like she was, relying on the one area he did have expertise in – his work – to get by from day to day.

She couldn’t say all that to the Professor, though. So she just shook her head.

“But he’s not. He’s not a machine,” she said. “No machine could play the piano the way he does…”

The Professor nodded, though to which part she didn’t know. “I know that. I know it better than ever today. Still...a Turk with some kind of moral code. That is an oddity.”

She rolled her eyes. “Not everything is a science experiment to be solved, Professor! You and Professor Hojo are sometimes so…”

“Professor Hojo? What about him?”

“Nothing,” she said. Though truth be told, it wasn’t ‘nothing’ – she had seen Hojo looking at Vincent in a similar way that Gast had: that he was a more complex specimen than they’d realised, and they wanted to put him under the nearest microscope until they had him figured out. 

She wasn’t fond of that look. 

Lucrecia might have thought she had Vincent somewhat figured out, but Hojo was another story. She admired his mind, was grateful to have someone around who would push for progress and ask hard questions, but figuring Hojo out? That was going to take some more time. 

“Isn’t this it?” Gast said, stopping them both in front of another door. 

“You’re right,” she said. She gathered her courage and knocked once. There was no answer. The two exchanged a glance and Lucrecia surprised herself by trying the door. 

It was unlocked. 

“Dr Crescent, are you sure-?”

“I just need to see he’s all right,” she said. She pushed the door open a little, calling, “Vincent?”

The apartment inside was small, smaller than her own – just a tiny living space with room enough for an area to cook, a couch facing the wall and two doors on opposite ends – bathroom and bedroom, she supposed. 

But no Vincent. 

She slipped inside, wondering if he was asleep in bed already. The place was spotlessly clean, no sign he’d stopped to eat if he’d been here. But it was also...

“Real bachelor pad, isn’t it?” Gast said softly. 

She nodded. 

Empty. The place was empty. It felt lonely rather than lived in, the only concession to leisure time a small bookcase at one side. 

She couldn’t help herself, she went to see what he’d been reading – books about music, and surprisingly some religious texts. He’d never spoken to her about it, but somehow it fit with how quiet and contemplative he was. 

For some weird reason it made her happy that he had a novel in his selection, too; something a little lighter he could escape from this dreary room with. 

She put them back neatly on the shelves and turned around-

Then she nearly jumped out of her skin when she spotted him lying on the couch. 

Lucrecia bumped the bookcase with her elbow but managed to cover her mouth to block any other noise. Gast noticed, peering over the couch and spotting Vincent himself. 

Once she recovered from the shock they both realised he was apparently sleeping – he’d collapsed onto his side, managing only to dump his coat, jacket, weapons and weapon holsters on the little coffee table before passing out, or so it seemed. 

He was apparently pretty heavily out of it, too – he hadn’t even stirred with the noise they’d both made. She squatted down to see if she could assess any damage – his left arm where he’d tried to ward off the Sweeper with was burnt, but it looked like he’d applied Cure materia to take the edge off. Besides that, he was scraped up but in one piece; the only other thing that concerned her was how pale and exhausted he looked. 

She rose, looking around for a blanket for him. She couldn’t seem to find one, so she cracked his bedroom door open a tiny bit. Luckily there was a throw dumped over the back of his desk chair in easy grabbing distance so she didn’t have to invade his privacy much more. She did notice a cat bed in one corner before she shut the door, though – he must have been feeding one of the town strays, she was sure he didn’t have a pet.

When she got back Gast was standing by the coffee table, reading a stack of papers. 

“What’s that?” she mouthed. He held them up so she could read the title. 

INVESTIGATION INTO THE USES AND EFFECTS OF NEW EXPERIMENTAL WEAPON: MATERIA

combat report by Vincent Valentine

And what followed was a rough draft of everything Vincent had discovered about materia. Lucrecia just scanned it – being Vincent, it was meticulously thorough, from comments on how the materia grew with use to even cursory observations that he’d noticed his own affinity for certain types of materia more than others, ice over fire, defence over offence – but what caught her eyes most was the section on side effects.

Potential issues and side effects

\- From trials in the combat simulator, data has been gathered that demonstrates stamina decreases the more materia is equipped. Shin-Ra’s Turks and troopers will not be more effective with the largest amount of materia they can carry, but rather the most optimal arrangement and use of a limited amount  
\- Constant use and overuse of materia leads to exhaustion, burnout and potential physical damage to the wielder. Tolerance can be built up, but no conclusion would be complete without the admission that materia cannot completely replace the primary weapon of the user.

Lucrecia read that section again. Constant use and overuse of materia leads to exhaustion, burnout…

She met Gast’s eye, and he gestured towards Vincent, and the whole messy pile of materia he’d left strewn out on the coffee table. 

“Looks like he’s given us the answer himself,” Gast whispered, putting the report back on the table next to the pen Vincent had discarded there. “Let’s let him get some rest, OK?”

Lucrecia nodded. She wasn’t sure why she had such an uneasy feeling in her stomach, but she knew sticking around would be a further invasion of Vincent’s space. Evidently he hadn’t wanted any of them to see him in this state: if she hadn’t insisted on checking him, he probably would have just walked into work tomorrow with his burn hidden under his jacket sleeve, acting like everything was just like usual and he hadn’t nearly gotten killed the day before. 

She bit her lip again as she remembered the way her heart had skipped when that machine had pinned him down. 

“Lucrecia?” Gast prompted. She nodded, but grabbed one of the blank sheets of paper to write him a quick note. She wanted to start the note with a teasing ‘Mr Bodyguard’ like she called him sometimes, but she couldn’t quite work up the confidence. Instead she wrote:

Vincent,

We came to check on you but you were asleep. Remember to lock your door behind you next time! 

Don’t forget to get something to eat when you wake up, and if you need something for that burn make sure to treat it. 

She chewed the pen thoughtfully before adding,

Good job at the tournament – you did the department proud.

From,

the Shin-Ra Science Dept.

She stood back, leaving the note with his report and unfolding the throw in her hands. Carefully, very carefully to avoid waking him, she laid the blanket over the sleeping Turk and backed quickly away. Vincent stirred a little, but then settled back – even seemed to curl up a little under the quilt she’d provided. 

Lucrecia flushed. She’d assigned a lot of words to Vincent in her head before today. She hadn’t been expecting to add ‘cute’ to that list. When she thought about his dark hair and shy looks, ‘handsome’ usually fit the bill a bit more, after all…

“Lucrecia?” Gast prompted again. Planet, she was turning red. She nodded stiffly, quickly leading the way back to the door. 

Neither of them noticed Vincent stir a second time, even open his eyes a little. He saw the empty room and in his disorientation, assumed he must have been dreaming. 

Lucrecia wasn’t there, after all.


	12. The First Calamity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Please R & R as usual! Comments are appreciated :D Thanks to everybody who has so far.

Vincent recovered from the tiredness of the tournament quickly. He finished up the report he’d written about the use of materia and submitted it, but things were strangely quiet after that. He tried to chase it up once, to check that the higher-ups understood the warning he was giving them about the use of materia, and got back total radio silence. 

If they cared about the potential for endangering their troops at all, they weren’t showing it. Quite the opposite, in fact – people kept greeting him and congratulating him for doing so well in the tournament, and whenever he asked them about the report they had no idea what he was talking about. 

He was to the point that just mass emailing it within departments seemed like a better option and intended to go and do it one morning, when he came in to find a much worse problem was occurring. 

Staff were moving a huge crate labelled fragile, being overseen by Hojo – and a furious Gast.

“We talked about this!” Gast yelled, making no attempt not to make a scene. “We agreed that this was not safe!”

Hojo turned to face him, irate. “And it was slowing down our work. JENOVA will be perfectly safe in the room in the manor I have set up for her.”

“Where in the manor?” Vincent said. Hojo turned, spotted him and sighed. 

“Oh, Valentine, it’s you,” he said. He ran a hand through his hair and squeezed his eyes shut. “Not going to give me a hard time about this too, are you?”

“Who cleared this?” Vincent demanded. Hojo dropped his hand and looked him dead in the eye, smirking. He reached into his lab coat and took out a piece of paper with a flourish. Unfolding it, he shoved it into Gast’s face. The Professor sputtered indignantly and grabbed it, scanning the page with disbelief. 

“This...this can’t…” he said. He passed it to Vincent to let him read it, and it was just as bad as the Turk had feared. 

It was an order allowing the moving of JENOVA into a room in the manor, signed off by no less than President Shinra himself. Vincent folded it up and handed it straight back, asking again, “Where in the manor?”

Hojo frowned. “You don’t have clearance-”

Vincent ignored him, rushing into the manor and following the troops lugging the huge crate. They’d already disappeared from view, but luckily they’d left him a handy trail: green droplets had spilled from the crate and left him a line to follow. Vincent pushed back other staff as he followed them to the elevator, and found that the trail disappeared into there. 

He ducked quickly inside before anyone could stop him and he went to pull the lever down just as someone cried, “Vincent?”

He paused. Lucrecia peered around the corner, spotting him there. “What are you doing-”

Vincent grabbed her arm and pulled her inside, quickly pulling the lever down. He cleared his throat, letting her go and putting a more respectful distance between them. “Sorry,” he said. “I’m not meant to be doing this.”

“Doing what?”

“They’re moving her into the manor – JENOVA. I need to check how safe the containment is.”

She looked down, her face falling. “Oh…”

“Are you all right?” 

“Yes, it’s just…” She ran a hand through her hair, sighing. “He never told me about it…”

Vincent looked over at her. He could hear the hurt in her voice, see it in the slope of her shoulders, though he wasn’t sure of the cause. “He didn’t – tell Gast either,” he said hesitantly, unsure if that was the right thing to say. “He must have known there’d be pushback.”

“Hmm,” she said. “There must be more to it than that…”

“Are you worried, Dr Crescent?” Vincent asked. He’d pulled her in here on an impulse, knowing he could trust her, but he was starting to regret that now. It was his job to keep her safe, after all, and putting her near JENOVA while she was being moved didn’t rank highly on that list. “Maybe you could wait when the elevator lands, and I’ll check this out-”

“Don’t even think of going alone, Mr Bodyguard,” she said, and suddenly, abruptly, looked at him with a truly dazzling smile. “I bet you’ll be less reckless with your own safety if you have someone to protect.”

He swallowed, his throat going dry as he looked back into her brown eyes. He couldn’t deny she was right; he would be more careful if she was there, but what stood out to him more was her concern for him, even at the cost of her own safety. “All right,” he said softly. “But if I ask you to leave for your own safety, I need you to do it.”

She tipped her head to one side. “Hmm. I’ll consider it,” she said. 

The elevator hummed softly as it descended, but the two of them kept looking at one another. Vincent suddenly caught himself, looking away. “Sorry, I should have…”

“What are you sorry for?” she asked, confused. 

“Well – my eyes,” he said. He looked up at her again, found he’d only confused her more. “My eye colour unnerves most people, so I try to avoid…”

He trailed off as she suddenly leant in close and swept some of his bangs out of the way to get a better look. 

“What do you know,” she said, not just studying him but really looking, and looking without fear or reservation. “I guess I hadn’t noticed.”

Vincent raised his hand to pull her wrist away and brush the comment off, but then she wrapped her hand around his and he stalled. The two of them were so close, and her hand was even warmer than he’d imagined…

He wasn’t sure who leant in first, it was as if they were pulled together by a magnet. Somewhere in the back of his mind he was sure he was dreaming – it was too good to be true that he could kiss Lucrecia Crescent, even more so that she seemed to want to just as much as he did - 

Then the elevator dinged, surprising both of them. The doors slid open and they flinched apart, coming face to face with a group of bemused troopers on the ground floor. 

“Interrupting something, sir?” one of the juniors asked.

Vincent couldn’t find the words to deny it.


End file.
